Going Further
by RiptideZ
Summary: Enter Red: a shy 11-year old boy dealing with the destruction of his hometown. With no family left in Kanto, he heads north to Pallet Town and begins a journey of self-discovery. This is the origin of Mt. Silver's legend. Read and Review, please.
1. Cipher's Weapon

_Welcome to RiptideZ's "Going Further," a non-profit fan-produced fiction product under the ownership of set penname: RiptideZ._

_DISCLAIMER:_

_All copyrighted items mentioned or used in this work belongs to their rightful owners at Game Freak, Nintendo, and other brands mentioned below or later under terms of Fair Use. The author only owns their own creations. This author is an adamant supporter of Constructive Criticism, please read and review, be mindful however, this author will delete your comment if it is considered of ill-intent or overstated such as being already stated more than a few times. If anything is wrong with the writing piece, contact RiptideZ through the reviews section, or Instant Messaging."_

* * *

**…**

**[Team Rocket/Japanese Rocket Syndicate]**

**[POV: Rocket Boss]**

**[Syndicate HQ – Game Corner Basement, Celadon City]**

**…**

South of mainland Kanto, were a group of islands commonly referred to as the Sevii, a streaking white light zoomed through the night sky under the watchful stars. The magnificent object glowed with unnatural light, it had a sparkling tail and was little over 40 meters long.

A fisherman was shocked at the sight of the large flying spherical dish like object, it flew past the dock as the man fell skull-first into the water when he attempted to back up and get a good look past the bright form. A small splash followed his form. The object skimmed near the water and for a second looked like it was going to enter the water then suddenly bounced and zoomed skyward into the clouds.

It disappeared as the light grew distant in the shifting storm above.

Above the object and completely unnoticed, a plane, a Unovan-built Lockheed L-100 Hercules, a civilian version of the greatly feared AC-130 attack gunship chased the object over the tips of clouds. Mounted on its side was an aerodynamic camera module watching the object as it flew through the night at speeds considered only achievable by certain flying Pokémon and human built machinery. Its video projecting in four different modes gave the most informative images possible. The video was transferred back to the mainland in Celadon City where in a basement, information streamed live with great precision.

"Sir, the target is increasing velocity, I'm not sure how long we can maintain our altitude in these conditions, the storms starting to pick up." The co-pilot stated through the audio feed, if our readings are correct, the storm is centered on the object." The gray body of the L-100 shuddered as a burst of an aerial undercurrent battered along the side of the plane.

"Alright, return to Vermilion, Hunter-1, your work is done." The man on the other end of the line stated, he wore a business suit and a fedora cap. On his trench coat hanging from a coat hanger, a large red letter R stood out in the dim-lit room reflecting light coming from the video screen. The recording continued to play on infinite rerun.

The room while dim was the design of a simple office a desk, several book shelves filled with important logs, a few of house plants, decorations were kept to a minimum, a comfy chair kept the tired man at least attune.

He was Giovanni Umbers Junior, the de facto leader of the feared Team Rocket. His father, Giovanni Senior who died of lung disease caused by smoking back in '93 had forced the younger man to take up the slack of the Syndicate.

He pressed a button and spoke into his microphone, contacting his secretary, "Ariana, could you get Shadow in here."

"Yes, sir." The women replied before the line ended.

Few seconds later, the room's lights turned on revealing green-tiled walls and a purple ceiling. A simplistic décor. Entering the room, a young adult, probably in his early 20s entered the room. His face was obscured by the black hoodie and black sweat pants that covered his entire body.

"Sup, boss?"

Ignoring the statement, Giovanni got up from his desk.

The door finally closed.

"Dammit, Allen, I'm your father, not your day job head. I need your opinion on something."

"Sure dad, what is it."

"You see that?" Giovanni pointed at the video.

"Yeah."

Intel says that that's the work of a group of criminals in the Orre. They call themselves Cipher, got any knowledge on them?"

"Uh… no, I think I've heard the name get rolled around in conversations with the info brokers in my recent travels; nothing off the top of my head though."

"Alright, that there is a completely obedient 'Shadow' Lugia, the usage of gassy mental toxins can have a sort of effect on certain Pokémon, the practice is common to most known civilizations in history, but, this is probably the first time that it has been done to a Legendary."

"Alright, so?"

"We developed it first, the research was done while I served in the Kanto Coast Guard, cooperative military project with Johto back in '84. Anyway, the gangs in central Japan have gotten ahold of the research and their first test subject, the town of Summer, Kanto. That's about 100 miles from here, I don't know what the plan is, all I know is this is dangerous for business and the Syndicate. I want you to start moving your feelers around the information community, get me anything that could help us limit the development of these upstarts!"

"Yes, dad!" Allen stated with a salute.

"Good man, and make sure to take care of Silver, your mother's death has really taken a toll on him."

"Will you be home tomorrow?"

"Do you really want an answer?"

"Never mind, and by the way, why did we never try that on our Pokémon?"

You know pretty well why, we would be crossing several ethnic barriers that I wish not to cross."

"Grandpa would have done it."

"I'm not him, now get out."

"Yes, sir."

The young man left the room and the lights remained on.

With a heavy sigh, Giovanni turned back to face the screen.

Without deciding anything, he turned off the TV.

He looked at one small portrait, a young woman sat in the picture under an umbrella on the beach.

"Sorry Mary, I should have never gotten involved."

He looked too the other side of his desk toward a face-down portrait, facing it up, a man looking similar to Giovanni, his father.

He spoke quietly to the picture, "You made me lose my job, my wife, my way of life, my children, their father, and my dignity; all to keep the family fortune going and your memory alive. So I'm hope your happy in hell, you cold, dead bastard!"

He threw the portrait at a wall and the picture shattered.

"Good riddance."

Sometimes Giovanni just wished he hadn't agreed to the stupid Syndicate, if he left now though, he and his family would become targets. He was once a happy family man with a secure career path in the military even with the dark projects that he tended to work with, at least back then he was guilt free.

A noticeable Orre-originated pistol sat upon his desk near Giovanni's left hand. A QSZ-92, his hand brushed it and then quickly shot away. It came down like a mallet, an iron fist smashed the desk. The soundproof office however stopped the aggressive gesture from ringing through the entire basement.

He felt as if he were at rock bottom, he really needed a scotch.

Meanwhile, near the town of Summer, south of Pallet, the shining beacon of light flew with its mini-storm and ravaged the town with one mighty gust.

Its form of light dimmed revealing a coal, black sea dragon. Its blood red eyes had no emotion as it let out an ominous scream. A flap of its wings and all was silent as the pitter patter of rain drowned out the sound of the beast breaking the sound barrier and disappearing into the gray clouds, the sun beginning to peak behind the horizon illuminating the entire shadowy sky.

**…**


	2. End of Summer

**...**

**[POV: Red T. Blackburn]**

**[Summer Town Suburb – South of Pallet Town]**

**...**

Red had been sleeping when the sound of thunder had broken his sleep cycle.

Opening his eyes just a tad bit, he made out the two squares that were his bedroom windows. It was bright outside or at least as bright as day could get behind a cm of wool window shades.

Today was supposed to be Monday so why had his alarm not ring, heck, why was his alarm clock stating it was only 6:45 am. Today was a school day, he had set his alarm to 9:30 since school started at 10 am.

Oh, it was still night, at least to Red. The sun still had another 30 minutes to go before the sun broke the horizon. That still didn't explain the brightness however. Ignoring the light, Red took his pillow and covered his black mop of fur he called his hair and tried to drown out the light. The distant pitter-patter of rain and chilling thunder could still be heard, but at least the sky was dark to Red.

A few minutes pass and Red finally is about to go back to sleep when a loud explosion is heard outside. His alarm suddenly starts to shriek before going out, as if it was having a seizure.

The startling sound of the alarm forced Red's head into his cupboard and shook the table behind the bed. The alarm clock fell and smacked Red hard in the face.

Feeling a numbing, icy feeling rise in his face; Red had enough. Getting up and out of bed, he tiptoed over to his window. He made sure that the creaky floor below his carpet did not wake his aunt and uncle sleeping downstairs in their bedroom. Pulling back the curtain, Red was shocked by the sight of a magnificent bright light, a being of pure white brighter than the sun.

The light slightly faded revealing a magnificent black dragon, its eyes sparkled a menacing red in the dim light of the moon blocked by storm clouds. The beast was firing beams of energy all over the place, lighting buildings on fire even with the strong wind and rain. The fire only became more devious and destroyed everything in its wake. The beast's head suddenly turned in Red's direction as if some supernatural force had told the creature he was there. The beast again began to glow a bright white and loaded a beam of energy and everything was suddenly bright and his ears were ringing as if he were standing under a ringing bronze bell.

Next thing he knew, he found himself outside his bedroom laying on top of his backyard trampoline in the cold rain. His room was a smoking crater and the house had seen better days. A fallen tree had smashed into his room and taken up residence. A large fire had built up in the attic that had left the second floor's roof a blazing inferno and one of the other rooms had collapsed on its self. Climbing up and removing the shrapnel from around his body and on top of him, Red climbed out of the wreckage and looked over his now tattered pajamas.

His Charmander pants had been torn in several places leaving open gashes on his knees and his left foot. His favorite undershirt, colored a charcoal black built similarly to a muscle shirt was also ripped; his skin along his torso was clean of scratches thankfully. Bouncing almost comically to the exit of the play-arena, Red looked skyward. The sun was rising as the clouds started to part. The town was in shreds.

Downtown or at least the general direction was a blazing inferno as inferred by the huge column of smoke rising into the gray and reddish sky. Red also saw multiple fires and craters lining his quiet suburb past his wired fence. Walking through the wet grass over to the backdoor by the roofed porch, Red attempted to enter the house.

The door was locked.

Shacking the knob for effect, Red found himself getting nowhere.

Above the pitter-patter of a rain storm gave the already messed up day a new layer of shock. Red turned around and walked through the presidium of the porch and peaked around one side of the house. The beam had blasted straight through his bed room and the entire second floor, the other side of the house had a gaping wound twice the size as the entry crater.

Red remembered the blast. It was at first a glowing bright white ball encompassing a smaller more concentrated orange sphere that lit and transformed into a slivery-blue thick laser straight at him, it was somehow a miracle it missed.

Giving the hole a glance, he shuddered at thought of taking the blast directly.

Red turned around and walked around the other side of the house, the wet grass squeaked under his wet feet.

Red didn't mind the ticklish feeling of the grass below his feet, the fresh dew and rain was a welcoming change to the secluded life he had lived since he moved in with his aunt and uncle along the dry carpet of a well-furnished house.

Reaching the other side where the wire fence had an opening and the water collector and lightning rod ran into the ground were present.

The ceiling on the second floor had crumbled and poured to the ground like and rock slide, a sort of improvised ladder back into the house, kind of convenient.

Climbing up the mound, Red flinched every so often a loose rock or shard of glass scraped his knee or foot. He climbed and crawled his way to the top, by the time he had reached the summit and the second floor he found himself covered in little scratches and scraps along his knees and thighs. Ignoring the dull itchy and pest-like pain in his legs, he walked into the room he had climbed into.

A bedroom, one he had not entered for 3 years. This was the room of his adult cousin Indigo, a doctor currently taking up residence in the distant Kalos region.

Red looked around the room, debris had crushed his bed and a fire burned in the corner where his large bookshelf of medical concepts once thrived. The old, musty blanket colored a deep maroon was charred black as if an unwrapped bodybag minus a body.

Indigo's old computer sat on its desk untouched; no debris, no marks, no dust. It sat as if it still had purpose, almost as if someone had touched it recently.

Drawn to the machine, Red walked over to the desk and booted up the system. He hit the power switch on the computer CPU body and tested the system. A blank, blue screen appeared and yet nothing happened. Red tapped at the keyboard, nothing happened. He shuffled the mouse, nothing happened, not even a mouse projection icon.

Giving up, Red stood up and walked away quickly; he left the computer on, not really caring about it. He was trying to figure something out and his behavior was nothing but irregular.

He ran down the hallway quickly avoiding debris, he scampered down the stairs, the banister had toppled over and wood and metal littered the tiled floors. He rushed toward the kitchen only to find the place a mess. Smashed glass, fine china, toppled furniture, a house plant with dumped soil across the counter. The refrigerator had collapsed on its side. The place would have been given a good smack down of words if his aunt had seen this, if anything, where was she and his uncle? They would have heard the explosions.

Exiting the kitchen and into the living room, the furniture was smoked and the TV was just about crushed. A snapping was heard above him, Red made a split second decision and jumped backwards. Cracks appeared in the ceiling, nearly missing Red and traveled across the damaged building infrastructure. The second floor came collapsing down and crushing the entire living room, the spare bedroom was tatters on top of the living room with nothing left of the bed or furniture that had adorned the small room.

Red stepped back frantically and ignored the narrow step that nearly forced a nail into his foot and up his heel. He walked around the debris and was cautious even more as his adrenaline started to course through his veins, he couldn't find his relatives.

He walked fast toward the master bedroom at the far side of the house passed a set of portraits of his aunt and uncle in their younger days, they looked smudged and old in the dark debris of the house's slow destruction. A ceiling creaked somewhere above from extreme pressure.

Red reached the bedroom door and found smoke seeping from under the crack of the door. He opened the door with a quick budge, a large assortment of furniture and ceiling dry wall had collapsed on the room. A fire was running rampant in the parts of the room he could see, Red barely had a view of the rest of the room behind the clutter of wood and debris and the thick gray smoke. A fire alarm ringed somewhere in the back of the room. All Red could tell was there was no sound of coughing, yells for help, or even the whisper of someone in the room. Stepping in for a better loo, Red was met with another collapse of the ceiling and the room was utterly destroyed leaving nothing behind. No one could have survived that. Red didn't know if he should feel pain or sorrow, he was in shock and his body didn't move as he simply stood there and looked at the fire pyre that had formed naturally in the destruction. It was hypnotizing as he watched the room catch fire and get bigger and bigger. Like a giant snake, the fire engulfed everything in its path as it got closer and closer to Red's shell-shocked form. Finally escaping his trance, Red turned back and ran for his dear life not giving a second thought as the fire slowed at the door.

He turned to see the fire slow to a halt, but it did little to help his anxious body. He was emotionless except for the noticeable and irritating tears now swelling down his eyes as he realized the only viable family he had left had just disappeared in the blink of an eye. His tears left no room for whimpering or crying out in vain, as soon as they started, they began to slow and build up in his eye lids. Red wiped his eyes with his pajama sleeve, he ran back to the stair well and ran back upstairs. He gave a low, sad whistle to the downstairs as if to say goodbye.

Running to his room, Red took note of the damage that the creature had done to his house. An entire hole traveling through the entire house and then melting through two other houses down the street.

Charred marks and splintered wood still littered the hallway and the bedrooms. A fire raged in parts of the attic from what he could here. Quickly entering the ginormous hole that was once his bedroom door and surrounding wall, Red quickly grabbed his school bag and dumped everything in it. His school supplies, his books, his papers, his homework. He didn't give a darn in the dire situation. He was being erratic but he did not stop, Red ran into his closet, a walk in cubby likely design for probably a teenager with lots of clothes, i.e. a teenage girl minus the bland, white walls making it utilitarian in design. However, Red had used the closet to his advantage, boxes and clothes sat around somewhat disorganized; Red didn't even need to guess where to find what he needed. Off the top of a dusty drawer, Red grabbed his old baseball cap. Colored in red and white, it was the last item that he got from his cousin before leaving for Kalos. He grabbed a black t-shirt and replaced his undershirt, choosing to go commando. He grabbed a school-collared vest colored also red like his hat, Red tugged the clean clothing over his head and threw the old clothes in the corner. He pulled off his pajamas and replaced them with a set of dark blue, loose jeans and a leather, black belt. He pulled on some white socks and attached his white, black, and red running sneakers, their new design was unfamiliar on his feet.

Red then searched his room for supplies or anything he could salvage from the place. He grabbed an extra set of clothes, his useful and most-important Poké-Gear, his sleeping bag, his swim trunks, a pair of water goggles, a pair of snowboarding goggles, and a towel. He also grabbed his blanket from his bed, a red sheet for when he may need it.

Suddenly, as he prepared his exit, an echoing ping pierced the wordless cloud of noise between audio phases of crackling fire, collapsing houses structures, fire alarms, and debris under Red's feet; a ping rang through the collapsing house. Following the sound, Red exited the room and walked into the hall. Another ping originating from Indigo's old bedroom.

Red walked in, glass and wood crackling under his feet, he entered the destroyed room and found that the old computer had successfully booted. Red went up to the machine and clicked on a profile, and strangely enough, no password.

Red accessed the profile and found a container on the PC system with items. Red's eyes bugged out at what he saw. 3000 credits, enough cash to survive off for a good while, and a Pokémon potion. Strange how he go access, but Red had practically struck gold, he activated the transfer system and all of a sudden the excess port on the side of the machine produced a small bottle containing plenty of antibiotics and a few, fine wads of paper money fresh and ready for usage. Internally, Red cheered the loudest he could. He had something of value that he could use if he found himself in a nutshell and by the looks of it, Red was in a pretty tough nut. His last blood tie in Kanto had just dropped off the face of this earth and he had nowhere to go, well he had some places to go, it just was a backdrop at this point however.

Red grabbed the supplies and secured it hastily in his pocket and ran down the hall way and down the stairs. He grabbed his Uncle's survival knife from his time in the military, a historical blade with a bayonet-styled handle and fixed point; its scabbard was a little dusty. Pulling it off the display, Red unlocked the house's front door and stepped out into the humid air. The sun was beginning to be blocked out again by storm clouds as rain continued to pepper the ground. Grabbing a small umbrella from next to the door, Red took a step out into the rain and released the umbrella, a black mass of cloth.

He stepped out and breathed a heavy sigh as he started out into the drive way. He looked back at the house, some of the fire was beginning to spread, Indigo's room collapsed at that very second. In the back, he could hear the sound of cracking wood, likely his room. The generators at the side of the house had also burst into flames and had caught the house on fire. A slow inferno nibbling its way through its prey like a colony of bugs.

Turning back from the house, Red gave the home he grew up in for most of his life and did not look back once more. He hiked the road and turned on a street, Homely Lane.

Red walked the street and watched the rows of other suburbs, the burning houses, and the small number of people calling out for help or aimlessly wandering the roads.

A man in boxers and a hoodie was running down the road. He looked Red up and down curiously and called a simplistic greeting, "Morning."

Red replied without haste to appear as if he was moving with a purpose, "Morning to you too, sir. I'm looking for a friend."

"Alright, son, but when you get the chance; find your parents alright."

"Yes, sir." Red replied making brief eye contact, the man had onyx eyes that bore into him, but were surprisingly warm. The man nodded in understanding and continued to run, probably also looking for neighbors and friends. The man did not look back.

Red jogged down the street toward some of his friends' houses. Charles Tyson, missing or no one around from what he saw out front. Madeline Minnie, house completely toppled over. Lindsey Parker, laid dead in the street with a piece of large shrapnel sticking through her stomach. Her eyes had been wide open.

Lindsey had been an acquaintance, Red lacked friends here in Summer Town, if you considered the fact that Red was kind of a social outcast among his classmates. He closed the girl's eyes, removed the shrapnel as best as he could and moved her body out of the street and placed a blanket from her house's debris and covered her upper body.

Red let the tears fall as he watched the body for an unknown period of time, finally after his eyes had started to ache a little from remaining open. Red blinked and went on his way. Visiting several more houses, Red found similar events, but, no other dead he could count. The town was a bloody mess though, houses were crushed, in flames, and debris was everywhere, it was worse than a flood or earthquake. It was like a warzone.

Red gave up after the 8th classmate's house.

Heading toward the outskirts of the violated and sleepy husk that once was the town of Summer. Red watched as a fire engine passed by with its sirens in full blare. He gave the vehicle a nod as a third ambulance came rushing behind it.

Red looked around him as he passed by a ditch, he wasn't being followed; there was no one nearby and he was alone. Red jumped into the man-made crevice and started walking toward inland. Smoke rose from downtown and the coastal regions of the town and Red simply forgot to look back.

Around half an hour of walking through the rain and eventually collapsing his umbrella due to increased wind speeds, Red had finally reached his destination. The Inter-Regional Railways train station. A railway company that made stops between Kanto and Johto that had interested Red as a kid, back then we he was quite innocent, he had loved trains, dear to his heart.

Now he was taking one to use as a means of escape and freedom, rails to freedom, a cheesy thought pasted through his mind.

Red exited the ditch and stepped across Maple Street and looked both ways around the time he got to the middle. He got to the other side, cars were absent from the roads and the only noise he could hear was the distant emergency sirens running through the area.

A train blew its whistle nearby, Red quickly got into action as he rushed toward a prepped train, a diesel engine on its way north. Red pulled out the bayonet and ran up to a box car, likely to carry cheap products from Johto manufacturing companies to the big cities like Celadon City.

Red grabbed a metal bar and walked steadily up to the lock, he stuck the poles thinner end between the lock and the chain on the door. Pushing heavily, Red quickly smashed the lock apart and opened the car door. Stepping inside, he found himself surrounded by decent laptops and some TVs still in their packaging.

Red grabbed the metal pole and climbed into the compartment and closed the door, he secured the door using the long iron pole. The box car was engulfed in darkness.

Rain distantly peppered the roof of the box car as the diesel powered locomotive at the front of the convoy began its forward push.

A loud whistle energized the air and with a slight jolt, the train pushed forward and was on its way.

Red steadied himself in the compartment and turned on his Poké Gear and used the screen light to illuminate the darkness. He also pulled out his uncle's survival knife, now his, and began to search the machines that numbered the area.

Red found a laptop, a carbon layered design with a silver, chrome finish in clear baggage. Just one out of several hundred, Red made the decision that no one would miss a single laptop, so he technically borrowed it, indefinitely.

He stuffed the machine and its parts into his bag and put the backpack down and checked his Poké Gear for internet connection. He waited a few seconds, it was there. Government provided service at the cost of tax-payers' money, at least it allowed for almost instantaneous service even if it was considerably insecure. Red turned on the radio app and cranked the digital signal to that of the Johto-originating Variety Channel.

"—we're friends for life."

"And if we come together as one,"

"Complete the quest, that we've begun,"

"We will win the battle!"

"Poké—…!"

Suddenly the music from the battle theme that was playing was cut off abruptly.

"Good morning Kanto, this is DJ James with my co-host DJ Jessie speaking to you live from our live-set in Lavender Town. We understand that DJ Mary's Stand Up/Battle Cry Deluxe Remix is the number one hit on the music charts this month but we have breaking news out of South Kanto today: the sudden destruction of Summer Town early this morning." DJ James stated.

"Early this morning, starting somewhere between 4:00 am to 5:00 am, storm warnings reported a strange tropical depression forming near the Sevii Archipelago heading north for the Kanto coastline. Its sudden appearance on the weather trackers has the entire scientific community in hysterics. The media has now dubbed it the Stealth Storm." DJ Jessie also added.

"Due to its sudden and disastrous appearance, emergency services failed bitterly to control the storm's damage and out of Summer Town's above 16,000-people population, the damage was catastrophic. So far estimated deaths have exceeded a hundred and the missing are too many to count." DJ James again said with sincerity in his voice.

"Please send your regards for those who have lost their homes and their loved ones. This is one of those moments where people need to come together and be strong for each other. You can provide relief for families in need by going to our website and donating to the relief effort, already first responders are working to clean the mess as fires spread across the business district. Interesting event, the damages look as if they were caused by attacks by a Pokémon or a strange case of mass ball lightning. We'll keep you updated, but for now, back to your music with DJ Mary. Mary?" DJ Jessie stated as she passed the signal back to the Johto receivers.

"Thank you, James and Jessie, now –"

Red shut off the Poké Gear and looked around in the now adjusted darkness. Red decided to check his current location as the train continued to move along its tracks clacking together as they hit the metal rails.

Removing the metal rod securing the door, the column completely slipped ajar blinding red with dull gray light.

Outside, the sky was still hazy with storm clouds. The familiar scene of Summer Town was all but gone; replaced by the endless plains that stretched across South Kanto. There were several hills and forests in the distance, but nothing too noticeable.

Red had not thought about it since he had left his destroyed house, he had no plan and really nowhere to go. Maybe starting at Pallet Town, his birthplace, would give him an incentive. He could visit Leaf and Blue again. It had been years, he missed them a lot: those were the days when he could talk, pretend, and play as if he was a Pokémon trainer. His uncle and aunt had tried to crush that dream out of him just like they did to their son. Maybe that would be Red's future; Red did not know, he shoved the thoughts into the back of his brain for a later date, now he just patiently watched the savannah-like environment as the train cackled down its established path through Kanto northbound.

Thunder roared in the distance and Red just sat and watched, slowly he began to doze off. He had a rough day, a very sad day, now he really needed rest.

**...**


End file.
